


For Your Wellbeing

by izzybelledot



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire Bashing, Aromantic, Awkward Conversations, Character Study, Comfort, Gen, Good Friend Adrien Agreste, Good Friend Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kinda?, LGBTQ Character, Lila is mentioned, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Deserves Happiness, Minor Alya salt, One Shot, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Post-Magic Reveal, Self-Discovery, Short One Shot, Traumatized Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, adrien positive, aromantic Marinette Dupain-Cheng, for once in my writting carreer, just a brief blurb, like its just mentioned, so u can deal with it, sorry - Freeform, the lord may judge my sins but I will die in maribat hell, weak, whatever, yay!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzybelledot/pseuds/izzybelledot
Summary: A character study conversation between Paris' late residential superheroes.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng / Self Discovery
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	For Your Wellbeing

“I don’t want a relationship right now.”

“Oh,” Adrien frowned, brows furrowing as he reassessed. Marinette really would rather not have this conversation. It wasn’t that she didn’t think Adrien would respect her decision necessarily, but it was something she hadn’t really figured out herself. She’d had several long talks with Tikki, and she still wasn’t sure how she felt about it. About herself. 

“Is it because of me, or?”

“I- um I don’t… I don’t know?” Marinette attempted, her efforts obviously only confusing him more. “I’m not sure how I feel about dating and sex and all that in general right now. I’m taking time to figure out what I want, and who I am before I try and commit myself to anything.”

Adrien paused for a moment to mull over her words before smiling brightly. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” Adrien chuckled, patting her on the shoulder in support. “That makes sense, and honestly I respect that. I just figured I should ask since the whole secret identities thing was out of the way.”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle at that, Kwami knows that mess had been ridiculous on countless levels. Now that Hawkmoth was finally gone, Adrien moving in with the Lahiffes, they had the rest of their lives ahead of them. Sort of. 

“Where are you gonna go to University?”

“Ugh,” She groaned, burying her face in the palms of her hands. “Hell if I know. I’ve considered going to New York, but then I don’t know if I could be a superhero or vigilante or whatever.”

Adrien frowned, noticeably fidgeting with his ring. “You want to be a superhero still?”

Marinette considered it, already guessing what his train of thought might be. A boy whose mother was put into a coma, and whose father went to jail for being involved with the miraculous couldn’t put a good light on it. “I’m the Guardian, remember? Of course, I don’t expect you to want to keep being a holder, to be honest.”

“You don’t?”

“Your family was torn apart by the miraculous, Adrien. And I know you’ve always wanted to feel like a normal kid,” She reminded him. “Just tell me when you’re ready to give it back. But you do have to say before I leave for University- wherever that may be. “

Adrien’s smile was hesitant and uncertain but relieved nonetheless. He brought her in for a quick hug, and she sighed happily. She had never been an especially emotional person, preferring to rationalize and examine her decisions beforehand. She did act emotionally sometimes, but it left her feeling off balance and unprepared so she didn’t prefer to. So when Adrien had checked all the boxes for a potential love interest she had been sure she had a crush.

She had admired his kindness and had wanted to know him better. But she had no idea what liking someone was supposed to look like, so she’d reacted and run everything by Alya to see if she was right. 

It had taken her far too long to realize that Alya had pressured her to react how she never had wanted to. She had cantered the majority of her time around making him happy, trusting that Alya would stop her if she went too far. But instead, she stayed silent, and hadn’t said anything about it until Lila came- and then she badmouthed her for it. Used it as evidence that Marinette was unstable and obsessive.

That had been a major check for her, realizing that Alya had _known _she had gone too far and had never said anything to her. But she could say that she was on the right track now.__

__“Can I ask you something, Marinette?”_ _

__“Um, yeah?”_ _

__“Well, it’s just- I don’t know if you’ve heard of this or just don’t want a label but-“ He paused, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Marinette just smiled and waited, knowing that talking might make him lose his confidence for whatever he wanted to say. “Have you ever heard the term aromantic before?”_ _

__“Um,” Marinette blinked in surprise. “I can’t say I have. What is it?”_ _

__“It’s an orientation,” Adrien began. “I might be off, but the way I understand it, it means that you don’t experience romantic attraction.”_ _

__She felt a bit of hope brow in her chest tentatively. She hadn’t really considered if that was an option, it’d never been on her radar. Her parents loved each other, and she had always respected the level of trust they had with each other- had wanted that. Not the dopey grins and strange sappiness but the trust and communication they shared. “That's… that's allowed?”_ _

__Adrien let out a peal of laughter, tension draining from his shoulders. “Yes, it’s _allowed, _Marinette.”___ _

____“You know what I mean,” She pouted at him. Still, her embarrassment couldn't tame the excitement growing in her. "Thanks, Adrien."_ _ _ _

_  
_

"I just want you to be yourself."

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something that was knocking around in my head for a while, and I wanted to challenge myself into writing this since it's a little different than my previous works. Please tell me what you think, and what I could work on!
> 
> Also as a note; I tried to look up a list of aromantic characters so Adrien could give Marinette some examples. But... I couldn't find any. Maybe there are some a web series or something, but in the four links I clicked on I couldn't find any. This actually made me really sad because representation in the media is extremely important, and I know I personally want Asexual representation so I can only imagine how bad it might feel not having _any _at all.__


End file.
